Bagel Sphere mulling move

Thursday

Bagel Sphere is considering moving its wholesale baking operation to west Eugene — after shipping bagels from the Thurston area of Springfield for nearly a decade.

Company owner Jim Underwood is negotiating the potential purchase of a new 3,500-square- foot industrial building at 4089 W. 11th Ave. — across the street from America’s Tire and next to Bella Stone.

The new building would allow for growth, and it would help economize Bagel Sphere’s delivery, Underwood said. Eugene is the location of Bagel Sphere’s hungriest wholesale customers, including Market of Choice stores, the University of Oregon and Lane Community College.

But a move is far from certain. Underwood is seeking zoning information and has yet to negotiate the details with property owner Clayton Walker, a Eugene developer and commercial real estate company owner.

The generally triangular lot that Underwood is considering held All-Roofs Northwest until three years ago, when the company headquarters burned — and all that was left was the slab.

C.W. Walker Construction bought the property from the All-Roofs owner in May 2009 for $122,500. Within a month, Walker applied for a permit to reconstruct the two-story building — this time, out of steel.

The list price for the nearly finished project is $375,000.

Should Bagel Sphere buy the building, it would expand to the rear by 960 square feet — for a total size of 4,000 square feet, according to preliminary plans submitted to the city of Eugene.

Jim and Tamara Underwood got into the bagel business nearly 15 years ago at their shop in the US Bank Center on Willamette Street in downtown Eugene.

They started as franchisees of a Portland-based company — launched by businessmen who bought recipes from the Bagel Boys of Hartford, Conn. — but within five years, the Underwoods took over the parent company.

The Underwoods opened a 3,700-square-foot retail store and wholesale bakery in the Thurston Plaza Shopping Center on Main Street in Springfield in 2000.

The couple also opened Novella Cafe at the entrance of the Eugene Public Library in early 2003.

The Bagel Sphere has annual sales of $500,000 to $1 million and employs between 10 and 20 workers, according to the Oregon Labor Market Information System.

The Underwoods are supporters of downtown revitalization and they have backed Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy.

The Underwoods recently met with Eugene city employees to determine the feasibility of relocating the wholesale bakery.

“We’re not there yet. It’s not a done deal yet,” Underwood emphasized. “It may not happen, in other words.”

The land is zoned for light industrial use, and manufacturing bagels fits squarely into the zoning, city land use analyst Kristie Brown said.

“The retail is allowed as long as it is directly related and limited to the product manufactured on site,” she said.

Underwood must determine what the city’s parking ordinances require. His plans call for six spaces in front of the building and three in the back.

Adding parking spaces would add impervious surface, which triggers the need to treat storm water run-off. The Amazon Canal skirts the long side of the triangular property.

“It’s the parking, and the parking throws you into water treatment. The water treatment issues seem to be the larger budget-line items,” Underwood said.

And that may determine whether the project is feasible, he said. “It has to do with our personal economics — how much we can afford to make it work for us.”

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